Computer Lock

[General Mortars]

Hi, guys,

I wonder if anyone can help me, for the last year or so my computer´s started to aggravate me to no end.

It developped the habit of locking up at the drop of the hat.


Whether I´m surfing the web, working on Photoshop, listening to Mp3, doesn´t matter, it just locks up; mouse doesn´t work, keyboard freezes, cursor paralysis, nothing moves.

I really don´t know what´s its problem, I ran antivirus checkups, I tried taking it back to the store where the guy ran a couple simulations (his verdict: "- Hmmm, probably overheating, try replacing the processor cooler"), I tried replaicng the cooler, the video card, I opened the side lid so it could get more air................ nothing.

When it locks up, my only choice is to leave it alone for half an hour, wait til it´s cooled off and turn in on again with a hope and a prayer.


What can it be?

Motherboard Asus P4P800
Intel P4 2,4Ghz 478 pin processor
ATI Radeon 9550
2 Gb Ram


Help!!

[budz]

Hi, guys,

I wonder if anyone can help me, for the last year or so my computer´s started to aggravate me to no end.

It developped the habit of locking up at the drop of the hat.


Whether I´m surfing the web, working on Photoshop, listening to Mp3, doesn´t matter, it just locks up; mouse doesn´t work, keyboard freezes, cursor paralysis, nothing moves.

I really don´t know what´s its problem, I ran antivirus checkups, I tried taking it back to the store where the guy ran a couple simulations (his verdict: "- Hmmm, probably overheating, try replacing the processor cooler"), I tried replaicng the cooler, the video card, I opened the side lid so it could get more air................ nothing.

When it locks up, my only choice is to leave it alone for half an hour, wait til it´s cooled off and turn in on again with a hope and a prayer.


What can it be?

Motherboard Asus P4P800
Intel P4 2,4Ghz 478 pin processor
ATI Radeon 9550
2 Gb Ram


Help!!

Have you tried checking your pc for spyware? Asus has a utility to check the temperature of your CPU & Motherboard, it's called ASUS PC PROBE. You can download it from here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3301.html
or from here:
http://mainboard-drivers-and-utilities.free-driver-download.com/ASUS/12451/ASUS-PC-Pro...T-2000-XP.html

Use the tool to make sure it's a heat related problem that is causing your pc to lock up.

[redwudz]

If it's not a overheating problem, next candidate is the power supply. You can usually test it by unplugging all the drives but the boot drive. (When the computer is powered down of course.)

If the PS is OK, could be memory modules overheating or having problems. You can check memory with MemTest86, but it's easier to just pull all your memory but one module, then substituting.

It gets harder from there, maybe motherboard? But hopefully it's something easy to find and fix.

[erdons]

Try counterspy.

[INFRATOM]

You have one of the best motherboards, you said you checked CPU fan just be sure, next would be power supply with this MB you should have 380+ watts , check power supply the next step is to check Bios this MB has heat and condition checker turn it off and if you can update bios. If nothing work reformat and reinstall Windows it will become like the day you got it if there were no hard ware issues. If I were you with all the hasstle would reformat first (if you are up to it) then look for other reasons. could also try running with internet and network disconnected to make sure a hacker hasn't turned your computer into a download junk server!!

[SLK001]

If it isn't the power supply, my guess would be a connector problem, installed card not properly seated, memory connector problem (try upseating the memory sticks, then replacing - or juggling positions of the cards), processor not properly seated (remove and reinstall)... then it gets ugly from here... cracked solder joint, defective trace on MB, etc.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

are you positive it's overheating?
as already mentioned, the ASUSProbe program is an excellent piece of software, especially since it's FREE!
could be a bloated registry as well as spyware, especially if you have installed and/or uninstalled a lot of software since you got the PC
you can get a registry cleaner like Ashampoo
Ad-Aware and other sypware proggies are great
worst case, back up all your valuable data and re-install windows

[jackal70058]

Maybe it a memory problem? To me it seems impossible to fill up 2GB of memory but if something is going nuts in the background it may be filling it up constantly. You might want to look at a monitoring program to see what is happening in your computer right before it hangs.

[General Mortars]

Hi, guys,
Thank you for the repplies, I really appreciate your asssistance on this matter.
I´ve downloaded the ASUS PC PROBE and according to it, all systems seemed to be working well.

So, for the next step I removed the RAM sticks and ran with only one at a time, pushing the system resources to maximum (multiple apps working in the background at the same time).
Eventually, one of RAM sticks started giving me trouble, which lead me to believe that it was the perpretator.
I´ve removed it and am now working with only the other two.
So far, the computer hasn´t crashed.

I´ll keep my fingers crossed for a day or so before bringing on the champagne, though.

[pfh]

Did you recently add ram? Sounds like you might have figured it out. Are the ram sticks different in any way? Sometimes this is the cause of random lock ups- different make, density, speed, etc.

[Xylob the Destroyer]

ja!
you're always gonna be better off with identicle RAM modules

[SLK001]

The connectors are a weak link in a lot of electronic systems. Sometimes, just removing and reinstalling a component will fix these intermittant heat related problems.

[General Mortars]

Now that you mention it, I did add a Ram stick around the time it started misbehaving (I had 2 512Mb sticks and added one 1Gb), but since it took a couple months for the grievances to start, I never associated the two things.

With this whole put stick/remove stick confusion, I have to confess I don´t know which is which anymore.